Gov. Rick Perry Shoots 'Wily' Coyote While on Jog

Mary Katharine Ham

April 28, 2010 10:40 AM

Gov. Rick Perry carries a pistol when he does trail runs in places where there are predators. On this particular sunrise run, a coyote was coming after his dog. I'll just reproduce the quotes, which make me wish I lived in Texas, where this is just plain talk from a politician:

"Don't attack my dog or you might get shot ... if you're a coyote,"

"They're very wily creatures."

"I holler and the coyote stopped. I holler again. By this time I had taken my weapon out and charged it. It is now staring dead at me. Either me or the dog are in imminent danger. I did the appropriate thing and sent it to where coyotes go."

"It was not in a lot of pain," he said. "It pretty much went down at that particular juncture."

Also, please take a moment to relish the admirable lack of bureaucracy surrounding a coyote kill:

Perry's security detail was not required to file a report about the governor discharging a weapon, said Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Tela Mange.

"People shoot coyotes all the time, snakes all the time," Mange said. "We don't write reports."